A Meeting to Remember
by AzaleaBlue
Summary: Ron might be an Auror (and a mighty good one at that) but when Dr Granger calls him for a checkup at their clinic, he realises his day job is way easier than the prospect of meeting a muggle doctor who also happens to be his girlfriend's dad. Written for the RomioneFluffFest'17 on Tumblr.


_A/N: This was my entry for the Romioneflufffest . Check out all the other amazing and fluffy entries on Tumblr!_

* * *

 **A Meeting to Remember**

"What do you think of the new clinic?" she asked beaming, and Ron glanced around the pristine white lobby.

"It's nice, you know, very -um- sterile." He regretted his choice of word immediately as Hermione's brows furrowed.

"That's wasn't possibly the best way to describe it, was it?"

She bit her lip in the fashion he knew too well and he relaxed, risking a grin. Her eyes softened further although Hermione was still trying hard to bite back her smile.

"But it is a little too clean, isn't it?" he chuckled, "Look at all the patients- they're actually spoiling the perfect decor!"

"Ron!" she admonished, looking around to ensure they hadn't been overheard, and then shook her head, laughing softly. He loved that smile. In fact, he loved every little thing about her, even stuff that his eleven-year-old self would consider annoying. And he was crazy enough about her to agree with her father. His stomach flipped at the thought and Ron's smile faltered.

 _Blimey, he must've been absolutely mental to agree to this._

Hermione had missed his sudden change in demeanour as she was busy reading a Muggle magazine. Ron glanced at the cover. It had plenty of big and complicated looking words on it along with a family of three, who from their unnatural smile, appeared to have had their teeth whitewashed. He would have brought that to Hermione's notice, _but who knew what happened during the dental checkups anyway?_ He decided ignorance was best for the sake of his mental well-being.

The immaculate clinic with its crisp and classy furniture was located in a posh and busy section of Muggle London. Hermione and her parents were proud of it, and Ron supposed it went very well with the Grangers' personality. The family was extremely orderly and perfect. When he thought of it, it was pretty surprising that Hermione had fallen in love with him. He was nowhere close to being orderly, and not exactly perfect, although Hermione always told him that he was perfect for her. The thought never failed to make him happy. He watched the oblivious witch next to him and smiled at himself. _Man, he was one lucky bloke!_

His short-lived moments of calm was rudely disrupted when a female voice boomed from somewhere on his left.

 _"_ _Mrs Agatha Brown, Dr Jane will see you now."_

An elderly lady sitting right in front of them left her chair, and Ron grasped Hermione's hand on impulse.

"Ron?" she looked at him puzzled, and he patted her hand absentmindedly, shaking his head to denote it was nothing (and to shake off his panic- but Hermione didn't need to know that).

As she busied herself with the magazine once more, the door to her father's surgery room opened and Ron got a brief glimpse of the was done in white as well. He had seen the whole place when it was under construction. However, back then, he hadn't truly acknowledged how terrifying a location this was going to turn out.

As Hermione's father stood at the door, busy talking to one of his assistants, the door left ajar, Ron took the opportunity to check out the den of horrors a little better. There seemed to be a wide assortment of surgical paraphernalia waiting for him.

Most of the stuff, he decided, would better suit a horror house. He had been to one with Hermione; it wasn't exactly scary in his opinion, but slightly absurd. Muggles had strange notions about ghosts, witches and other 'spooky' things which they were certain didn't exist in the first place. But back here in the Grangers' Dental Practice, Ron was seriously petrified. He had no clue how the Muggles allowed other Muggles to approach them with stuff that looked like torture devices. _Not just that, they actually paid to get these procedures done!_ He swallowed hard, trying his best to gulp down his panic.

"Tell me again, why am I doing this, Hermione?" he asked. Surprised to note that his voice was almost a squeak, he cleared his throat.

She flashed him a perfect smile, one that was kept that way by years of utterly perfect dental hygiene (and a tiny bit of magic in their Fourth year).

"Because you love me and want to impress my dad, perhaps?" She squeezed his ice-cold hand with her warm ones.

"Yeah, impress your Dad, right," he muttered. _Get a grip,_ he told himself. _It's nothing, you've faced worse- finished a bloody Horcrux, survived a war, taken down many Death Eaters and other notorious wizards in these years._ However, right now, the predicament that lay before him appeared infinitely scarier than his day job of being an Auror.

"Ron," Hermione called softly, and he turned towards her to find she had put away the magazine and was watching him curiously. "You don't have to do this."

"No, I do. I mean, I wasn't going to turn down your father after he offered me a checkup, was I?"

He _couldn't_ refuse her dad. He was a freakin' Gryffindor, after all. And as far as he knew (or hoped, rather), Hermione's dad liked him. _Not like the man was going to make Ron pay for dating his daughter by attacking him with those crazy looking what-ever-they-weres!_

"I'm okay, I'm okay," he added in a tone that clearly indicated he was anything but.

"You're just worried that Dad''ll reject you if he finds cavities," she chuckled, but threaded her fingers through his fingers nonetheless, and he grasped her back, hard. _Fuck it all, yes, he was scared- scared shiteless to be more precise._

"Right now, I'm really regretting those Honeyduke visits," he whispered.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, if it costs my girlfriend."

She chuckled but patted his biceps with her free hand.

He continued, talking as if dazed. "- and those and the chocolate frogs, Borties and-"

 _"_ _Mr Ron Weasley, Dr Thomas will see you next."_

He paled.

Hermione couldn't help feel sorry for her boyfriend. Despite his brave front, Ron had been a nervous wreck since her father had asked him to visit the clinic. She knew it could be jarring for a wizard to see a Muggle doctor perhaps, but Ron's fear, in this case, seemed to rival his arachnophobia. However, the pigheaded Gryffindor in him was unwilling to back down.

"Ron, it's okay. You really don't need to do this," she emphasised. "And even if you must, we can always come back later. Maybe you and I should go somewhere private? Will that make you feel better?" His eyes softened and she blushed at the familiar hint of love in his eyes before he seemed to remember where they were.

"No," he breathed, soft but determined. "I've got to see him."

"D'you want me to come with you?"

He looked straight at her. It was hard to say if he was on the brink of saying something or just mentally preparing himself, but he eventually shook his head in negative, patted her hand and left his chair. She couldn't help but be a little amused as well. He looked more like his fourteen-year-old self than the twenty-two-year-old Auror he was now. But Hermione had to agree that she had seen few things that scared him as much.

He gave her a weak smile, took a step forward and then suddenly, turned towards her. Bending low, he brought his face close to whisper in her ear.

"You're sure you restored their memory right, aren't you? I mean, they haven't forgotten-"

"Ron!" she half chuckled half scolded him and he straightened up.

"Just making sure! I believe you of course!"

And with that, he walked away, tall and proud.

…...

Half an hour passed. Hermione finished reading the magazine and restored it back in the correct place, while glancing at the closed door of her father's chamber every few minutes.

There was nothing to be nervous about, she told herself. Her parents were excellent doctors and despite her joke from moments earlier, she knew their opinion of her boyfriend did not depend on the presence or absence of cavities. Her parents adored Ron. He and her father got along pretty well. If not caught up at work, she usually had her Saturday lunch with them. Ron accompanied her every time he could manage. In all honesty, she had no clue what prompted her father to suddenly call him for a checkup though. At the time the men decided on this appointment, she was with her mother in their newly restored garden, admiring their recent collection of bonsais.

As another patient came out of her mother's chamber, she shuffled in her seat, restless. She was even more curious when her mother walked out and went into her father's room. Still, she waited, her patience running thin with each passing second. Five torturous minutes later though, she decided she couldn't take it any more.

Worried that Ron might have actually fainted out of sheer nerves, she picked up her handbag from the floor, deciding to check for herself.

 _"_ _Miss Granger, your father would like to see you,"_ boomed the receptionist's voice as if on cue, and she hurried, almost breaking into a run. For once in her life, she ignored all courtesies and pushed open the door.

However, to her immense surprise, she found three cheerful people sitting together at her father's desk. She glanced at each of them in total confusion, pausing when she caught Ron's eyes.

"What's happening?"

Ron rose from his chair, beaming, and her parents did the same. She noticed her father come forward to stand next to his wife, his arm around her shoulder, both of them watching Ron with unbridled adoration.

"Ron?" she questioned, baffled.

Ron's ears were almost the same shade as his hair when he pulled out a tiny box from his pocket and got down on his knees in front of her. Hermione gasped, the handbag slipped from her hand and landed on the floor with a loud clunk as tears welled in her eyes.

"Hermione," he said, and she bit her lip, willing her tears away so that she could keep this moment etched in her memory forever. A fair part of her wanted to kick him for the scare but that would have to wait. Her heart was pounding away at the moment, lost in the glorious vision in front of her.

Ron looked adorable with his mussed hair, probably the effect of having run his fingers through them much too often. He licked his lips and grinned.

"You know I'm rubbish at speeches," he began, and she chuckled through her tears, "-and I might have forgotten everything I planned to say…"

She noticed his blue eyes were at their darkest, conveying a thousand unspoken emotions.

"You've known me for more than half my life now, Hermione. You know I can't think of a life without you." His voice was so low and sincere that she almost forgot that they were in her parents' clinic and judging by the intensity in those orbs, Ron was disconnected from everything except her.

"You are my best friend," he went on, "you've seen me through my worst, and yet, you took me back. Hermione, I-" he faltered, emotions overwhelming both of them, "I'm- " he tried again and bit his lip, smiling in the familiar way that pulled at her heartstrings. "Thanks Merlin, you understand me even when I'm not making much sense!" he chuckled nervously, and rubbed the back of his neck. But when he met her eyes again, the nervousness was gone to be replaced with an insane amount of love and pride. "Hermione, if you'll have me, I promise to be only yours for all eternity," he whispered, and her tears and smiles all jumbled together.

This wasn't a new promise. He had professed it a million times already- during the silent hours at Shell Cottage when she lay injured, and during the Battle when they fought for everything they held dear. It echoed in the silence that lay between them when they grieved the loss of their friends and was wrapped in the shared smiles during the sunny afternoons they spent at the Burrow. It was said in unspoken words in every letter they wrote to each other, and whispered during their kisses. It had existed between them even before they knew…

"Hermione, will you marry me?" he asked finally, and she laughed even as her tears spilled over.

"Oh, Ron! Yes, yes, yes!" she cried, lurching at him and although she didn't notice him get up, she found herself wrapped in his arms, pressed against his hard chest.

"I love you," he whispered in her hair.

"I love you so much," she whispered back.

It could have been a million sunlit years later that he released her from his embrace. Hermione was sure she heard her mother sniff in the background as Ron's ring found its place on her finger.

"Congratulation!" she beamed, returning them a teary smile.

Hugs and smiles were shared, and toasts raised. (Who knew her father kept wine bottles at his clinic?)

"He came here to ask us formally for your hand" her mother explained a little later when the men stood a little distance away, chatting merrily.

"He did?!"

"Yes," her mother smiled. "We are very happy for the two of you. Ron is a good man."

"Yes, he is," she smiled proudly, looking at the beaming guy who was looking the happiest she had ever seen him.

…..

Later in the day as she lay in his arms, warm and blissfully happy, she chuckled to herself.

"I should've kicked you for that scare, Ron! Why did you lie to me?" she asked, turning around slightly to face him better; the fingers of her left hand drawing lazy patterns on his chest.

He laughed. His chest rumbled under her finger tips sending a wave of emotions through her.

"I didn't lie. He actually asked me if I ever had a checkup. Was horrified to know I never had," he guffawed. "And that's how I ended up with an appointment with your Dad."

"So you asked for their daughter's hand to make him forgo the checkup? Sneaky Weasley!" she chuckled, smacking his chest playfully.

He laughed aloud and shook his head.

"No! I swear," he said before he sobered a little. "I really wanted to ask him, do it the right way, you know?"

Ron placed his hand on hers and brought them to lie over his heart. "They've missed a lot of important occasions in your life, I reckoned we owed this after- y'know- "

"-their memory tampering," she furnished, sadly.

He nodded and placed his hand on her cheek, caressing her lips with the pad of his thumb.

"You did the bravest thing possible, Hermione. But doesn't change the fact that they never really had a choice. And despite everything, they allowed you to come back to us. They never forced you to leave this world and choose a Muggle life."

"I could never leave you," she whispered.

"I know," he said as he tucked a curl behind her ear and planted a quick peck on her forehead. "but not like they have the best impression about the Wizarding World, and for good reason too. This world almost snatched their daughter away from them. Must've been so hard letting you come back to us," he sighed.

She watched him mesmerised as he ran his finger over the ring that adorned her ring finger. Ron never ceased to surprise her. It was once more like the Room of Requirements during the final battle.

"I can't think of a life without you," he began again, "but it seemed only right to let them know first. They needed this assurance, didn't they? I wanted to tell them personally that I intend to love and cherish their daughter all my life, gift her with a messy, annoying prat of a husband if they agree-"

Everything else he wanted to say drowned in a flurry of kisses as Hermione pulling him into her. Ron wasn't complaining one bit. He knew she understood him anyway. And now, his life was perfect.

"Oh, and my teeth are perfect, thank you!" he grinned, flashing her a toothy smile while she rolled her eyes in mirth.

He was starving and the occasion called for a celebration at Honeydukes, he decided.

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 _A/n: Thanks for reading! A review will be highly appreciated as you all know Fluff isn't exactly my area of expertise!_


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